Sloppy accounting and staff turnover led to a miscalculation of more than $30 million at Colorado’s Division of Wildlife, according to a state audit presented to lawmakers Monday. The audit detailed the missteps that caused the new merged Division of Parks and Wildlife to overspend its reserve balance between 2007 and 2011. The problem, lawmakers were told, was caused by reporting errors that led agency officials to believe they had far more money to spend than they really did. As a result, the Wildlife Cash Fund Reserve dipped from about $37 million in 2007 to about $6 million by 2011.

“In the most basic terms, the money was spent but wasn’t deducted from the checkbook,” said Department of Natural Resources Director Mike King, who called the error “simply inconceivable.”

Finding out about the mistake last year was “one of the most disconcerting phone calls I’ve ever received,” King told the Legislative Audit Committee.

The depleted reserve has forced the Department of Natural Resources to delay some projects, including a shooting range in Denver, King said. Department officials repeatedly reminded lawmakers that the money was overspent but not misspent.

However, lawmakers were angry about the “gross error” and demanded to know how the agency planned to prevent another slipup. King and other officials accepted the entirety of the auditors’ suggestions — a 27- page report recommending technical accounting corrections — but lawmakers from both parties seemed unsatisfied that the mistake won’t happen again. The Associated Press

A local union president slammed by Donald Trump on Twitter stood his ground Thursday, maintaining the president-elect gave false hope to hundreds of workers by inflating the number of jobs being saved at a Carrier Corp. factory in Indianapolis.